CARL JUNCTION, Mo. — After trailing much of the first half, shorthanded Carl Junction rallied back to take the lead late in the third quarter behind the strong play from senior F Kylie Scott and never relinquished it on the way to a 40-34 win over Neosho in the opening round of Pool A action in the 47th Annual CJ Classic basketball tournament on Monday.
The season-opening win was also the first as the Carl Junction head coach for Ryan Odaffer.
“It feels great,” Odaffer said with a smile. “The girls came out and played hard in the first half, we just couldn’t get anything to fall. We had lots of open looks, we just couldn’t get the ball in the hoop. But, that’s part of basketball. At halftime, I just told them to stick with it and they will start falling, and they did.
“We started attacking the basket more in the second half and got to the free-throw line to give ourselves a chance. It was great not to see them hang their heads at the half.”
The Bulldogs (1-0) went into the second half trailing 15-13 and were down five before keeping the Wildcats (1-2) scoreless over the last two and a half minutes of the third quarter, closing the period on a 9-0 run to take a 28-24 lead into the final eight minutes of play.
“A lot of it came down to this being our first game and their third game,” Odaffer said about his team rallying in the third quarter. “I felt like we came out kind of nervous and not real confident because we had a lot of girls playing varsity for the first time. It took some time to get comfortable. In the second half, we came out much more calmly and played to our game plan. It wasn’t really one play, but we just slowed things down, took our time and ran our offense. We were going too fast in the first half. It was one pass and a shot. In the second half, we were getting three, four or five passes and then a layup or a foul. We were a lot more patient as a team.”
Senior F Anna Burch knocked down three of four free throws to start the run before Scott came up with a steal and a coast-to-coast layup on the other end to tie the game at 24-24.
Scott came up with another steal with less than a minute to play in the quarter and turned it into a pair of free throws the other way to give her team the lead for the final time.
With her team on her back, Scott, an Oral Roberts signee, closed the third quarter with a basket in the paint off the assist from Burch to send Carl Junction into the fourth quarter with a four-point cushion.
“Kylie just took over the game,” Odaffer said of his senior down the stretch. “She asserted her presence as the best player on the floor. … It is different this year for her. She has to take more of that leadership role and has to take over games like she did tonight for us to win. That’s not a role she’s had for three years.
“It’s time for her to step up and be our go-to player and she will figure that out more and more as the season progresses. You could really start to see her figure out in the third quarter and it was fun to watch. As the season goes on, I am interested to see her grow into that leadership role.”
Defensively, after keeping Neosho off the scoreboard for the final two and a half minutes of the third, the Bulldogs limited the Wildcats to one field goal during the first five and a half minutes of the fourth quarter, outscoring the Wildcats 10-3 in the process to build a 38-27 advantage.
“We wouldn’t have won without it,” Odaffer said when asked about his team’s defense to close the third and open the fourth quarters. “We just did a much better job of pressuring and getting up and guarding. Instead of letting them have opening passing lanes and open driving lanes, we got up and pressured the ball to make things more difficult, and then we just rebounded the heck out of the ball.”
Scott came up with six points during the run.
Neosho outscored Carl Junction 7-2 in the final two and a half minutes, but there wasn’t enough time for the Wildcats to make a serious run at the lead.
“We were ready to come out and play some basketball in the first half,” first-year Neosho coach Tyler Chaney said. “In the second half, our inexperience showed up and that might be a recurrence all year, which is to be expected. We will get better as the season goes on.”
Neosho took the early advantage and wound up leading for nearly the entire first half. The Wildcats used a 3-pointer from junior Reagan Williams to take the initial lead before sophomore Jazmyn Washington scored inside for a 5-0 lead with 4:25 on the clock in the opening period.
Carl Junction got a basket off the break from DeShaye Buerge to get on the board before Scott grabbed an offensive rebound for a putback with two minutes left to trim the Wildcats’ advantage to 5-4 at the first break.
The Bulldogs took their first lead, a brief one, two minutes into the second period when junior Kenna Ellison scored on the inside for a 6-5 advantage.
Washington got a bucket on the next trip down the floor to give Neosho the lead again, 7-6, before Scott tied the game at 7-7 with a make at the charity stripe at the 3:25 mark.
The banks were open for junior Beclynn Garrett’s 3-ball from the wing to put Neosho up 10-7 at the five-minute mark.
Buerge tied the game up at 10s with a triple with three and a half minutes to play before an inside score from Washington and a corner 3-pointer from Garrett pushed the Wildcats’ advantage to 15-10.
Scott grabbed an offensive rebound for a bucket to wrap the first-half scoring with Neosho up 15-12 at the intermission.
SCORING LEADERS
Scott scored a game-high 21 points, 16 of which came in the second half, to lead Carl Junction. Ellison finished with seven and Buerge added four.
“She had an unbelievable game,” Odaffer said of Ellison. “Everytime she came in, she did something positive. I tell all of our girls coming off the bench to come in and do something good so I can’t take you off the floor. That’s how you get more playing time. Kenna did that tonight. She played under control with poise and played solid on defense.”
Garrett had 15, including four 3-pointers, to lead Neosho, while Williams added three triples on the way to 11 points. Washington finished with eight in the loss.
“Reagan has been great for us,” Chaney said. “You can tell she’s put in a lot of hours in the offseason. It doesn’t surprise me the success that she’s having shooting the ball for us.”
SHORTHANDED
Carl Junction was without junior starting G/F Dezi Williams because of an injury, but she is expected back in the lineup as soon as next week.
UP NEXT
Carl Junction hosts Parkview at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday on the second day of action in the CJ Classic.
Neosho takes on Parkview on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. on the third day of pool play action.
